Laurence McIntosh – from Media training to BBC News

The outcome: Successful training, appearance on BBC TV news, full page article in The Herald and The Press & Journal, picture story in the Scotsman

Sometimes in PR you have to act fast. While having lunch with a very lovely industry contact, I was sounded out to deliver some media training to one of her clients. I detailed previous training sessions and said I’d be delighted to help. This was on the Friday. Over the weekend it transpired that the company news would be released midweek, so we had to squeeze in some training first. I moved some things around and obliged, spending Monday afternoon with David McDonald, director of Laurence McIntosh.

We discussed the media and how it operated, how to get the company message across and how to stand and react in front of a camera. He picked it up very quickly and went home armed with the videos to practise. He also asked if I could stay with the company that week to facilitate media coverage of the upcoming announcement.

I immediately contacted the other players in the story and crafted a quote from David to be included in the press release.

The announcement was Laurence McIntosh’s appointment to deliver the prototype for the Glasgow School of Art library. The GSA was leading the announcement, so I had to liaise closely to make sure my client got the full benefit of the media coverage.

This included mentioning to a contact at The Press and Journal that David had in fact crafted the Chancellor’s Throne two decades previously when Aberdeen University celebrated its 500th anniversary. He also hails from Dingwall, giving this central-belt story a nice north-east hook. They agreed and went big on the story.

The press officer at Glasgow School of Art mentioned that the BBC were interested in covering the story, so I suggested David bring part of the model with him and work from Glasgow that day. It was a small gamble, news coverage is never guaranteed, but I knew if he stayed in Edinburgh waiting for a call, he may miss the filming slot. It paid off, by the afternoon he was in the fire-damaged library, hard hatted and in high vis, talking confidently to the camera about the project. I was so proud!

It all happened quite quickly but I love it when there’s momentum on a project. I was very pleased that David got such great coverage on the story and look forward to helping him further as the library project progresses. It’s such an interesting story and I know lots of outlets will be interested in telling it.